Town defender Luke Chambers is expecting a rough ride from supporters of previous club Nottingham Forest when he returns to the City Ground today.
Chambers, who scored 21 goals in 229 appearances during five and a half years with Forest, was also on the receiving end last season and believes it is all down to a massive misunderstanding on the fans’ part.
He said: "I think it will be a bit rough, like it was last season. When I left some of my words were twisted and I was sort of hung out to dry a little bit. But I’ll always have good memories of playing for Forest.
"The fans I see when I go back have always been very receptive and very good with me. I know I’ll probably be in for a bit of stick but I’ll take that as a bit of a compliment.”
Chambers’s strained relationship with Forest fans can be traced back to comments attributed to him after a home game that saw sections of the crowd turn on some players.
He recalled: "We were in a difficult situation and we were playing a team down at the bottom with us. It was 0-0 at half-time and some individuals were getting absolutely slaughtered.
"As captain I wasn’t looking to hammer the fans but that’s how it was portrayed. I was only asking people to get behind the team but unfortunately I was hung out to dry.”
However, Chambers has no regrets at how things have turned out since he decided to part company with Forest in the summer of 2012 and instead join Town.
He added: "It’s been a good move for me and my career. I’ve enjoyed every minute and I enjoy living in the area. I think the fans are absolutely tremendous, both home and away.
"Look where we are now, compared to how it started for me at Ipswich, but I think it has been a journey for all of us to get where we are. Hopefully we can give the supporters a lot more to cheer about.”
Chambers is adamant he is still looking forward to going back to the City Ground, although he knows fifth-placed Forest will be a tough nut to crack after banking 15 points from their nine home games to date.
Battling current team-mate Paul Taylor, then with Peterborough, during his time with Forest
He said: "Obviously it’s me going back to my former club but I just see it as an opportunity to make it four wins in a row for us and if we can do that we will be very, very happy over the Christmas period.
"They’ve got to be up there with a manager like Billy Davies, who has had success wherever he’s been, and the amount of money they have spent on players. Their budget is huge and if they’re not up there challenging there is something wrong.
"They picked up a good result last week (a 1-0 win at Sheffield Wednesday) but they are at home and the pressure will be on them. We will be going there knowing what we can do, putting ourselves about and hopefully taking all three points.”
Chambers certainly has no gripe with Davies, adding: "He’s a top manager and you can put him up there with our gaffer here. He was very, very good with me when I was at the club and I played some of my best football under him.
"I have nothing but good memories of playing for Billy Davies but everyone in the dressing room responds well to him. If I score we’ll see what happens and what sort of reception I get.”
Chambers believes it will be less of a daunting trip than it might have been a few weeks ago because Forest only lost one of their opening 12 league games in the Championship.
He said: "They started off flying and I fully expected that to happen but there are always times when teams have good runs and other times when they struggle a little bit, which is what is happening to them now.”
Town lost 1-0 in the corresponding fixture last season, their cause hardly helped by the first-half dismissal of Lee Martin and the red card later brandished to on-loan defender Richard Stearman.
He remembered: "We went up there in a struggling situation and we had a silly boy get sent off. Then we found ourselves in an even more difficult situation with just nine men.
"We lost 1-0 but after that game we felt we were going to be alright because we performed very, very well. We were well on top until we had players sent off and we’ll be looking to do the same again.
"Wherever we go we look to get ourselves on top. We have a team full of powerful players and if we do get on top of teams they find it difficult to slow us down. The gaffer will set the team up the way he feels is best and we’ll try to respond and come away with something.”